OFFICE OF THE Vice President (External)

Date: 31/01/2019 To: Students’ Union Council Re: VP(X) 2018/19 Report

Dear Council,

There are party candidates getting ready, and coverage is ramping up. Provincial election season is here! Even if the writ has not been dropped yet, the election must happen between February 1st and May 31st. Things are about to get fun…

1. Updates - CSJ Transition Meeting: ​I met with AUFSJ’s new President, Eric Einarson, to go over the transition document I had written at the end of my presidential term last year. It was a great chance to go over CSJ issues and make sure that AUFSJ stays a consistently strong faculty association. - CSJ Town Hall: ​On January 30th, the I organized a town hall meeting at Campus Saint-Jean between our Executive team and students. The goals of the meeting, which was attended by over 30 students, were around the CSJ political policy that I am revising, CSJ governance discussions in the francophone community, and any other topics students wanted to bring up. It was a very beneficial session that has provided some great direction on the political policy, and AUFSJ was also there to take notes from students on what they can do on their governance level as well. C’était vraiment un plaisir d’être parmi les étudiants du Campus Saint-Jean pour assurer qu’ils sont bien entendus par notre Students’ Union. - Provincial Candidates Forum:​ As part of GovWeek, I moderated a provincial political forum between Marlin Schmidt, Minister of Advanced Education and MLA for -Gold Bar, and Katherine O’Neill, the Party candidate for Edmonton-Riverview. They were asked questions about post-secondary affordability, infrastructure, employment, and many more topics. We are hoping to continue hosting events like this as the provincial election nears, it is important that students are able to interact with candidates and that the SU facilitates that in a non-partisan manner. (Note: we reached out to the United Conservative Party and for candidates, but the parties were not able to provide any.) - UCP Candidate Meeting:​ On January 31st, President Larsen, EAA Nelson and I met with Edmonton-Riverview UCP candidate Kara Barker. We discussed our election priorities, including affordability, student employment, mental health funding and deferred maintenance. We are meeting with candidates of various parties running in the Edmonton area to discuss PSE issues to ensure that students are heard on the ground level by candidates heading into the provincial election. - #StudentsLetsAct Campaign:​ On January 30, we launched the CASA mental health campaign aimed at having students write messages to the federal Minister of Health

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OFFICE OF THE Vice President (External) about why mental health matters to them. The nationwide campaign has garnered a lot of great attention on campuses, on social media, and in the media. Here is my ​article with the Calgary Herald talking about the campaign and why it is important that CASA advocates to the federal government for better mental health funding and supports. - CAUS Meeting: ​A CAUS conference call meeting was held on January 28th to discuss the hiring of the next Executive Director, election priorities, Get Out The Vote, and voluntary student unionism. We also discussed the need to ensure that research conducted on Indigenous student issues in the scope of the provincial government is done through the inclusion of Indigenous student views and research conducted by Indigenous peoples. - Alumni Council​: On January 30, I attended a meeting of the Alumni Council. The meeting consisted of a panel discussion with Board of Governors Chair Michael Phair, an update on volunteer engagement projects, and a discussion on Alumni Weekend 2019.

2. Coming up - Alberta Anti-Racism Framework Consultation:​ On February 4th, the Executive will be joining Minister of Education in this very important consultation. I encourage anyone who is available to attend from 1-3pm in the SUB Cascade room. - CASA Recruitment: ​CASA’s Member Relations Officer, Annie Sherry, will be in Edmonton on February 6 for recruitment work. I am excited to see if we are able to grow our Edmonton and Alberta membership in CASA!

3. Things to Note & Office hours - Office hours: ​From 3:30-4:30pm on February 12 in my office (SUB 2-900). - Out of Office: ​I will be in Winnipeg from February 7-11. During that time I will be presenting to the University of Manitoba Students’ Union on CASA, and taking some personal time off.

As I previously mentioned in Council a couple of weeks ago, I encourage all students to talk about post-secondary issues with candidates that they meet going into this election season. Showing candidates that we care, and that we vote, makes a world of difference and can affect election results. So let’s make sure they hear us.

Kind regards,

UASU VP (External) Adam Brown

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